Kate B. is back in town for the weekend, so Bart wanted to surprise her with a dinner out. He planned this elaborate deception and surprised Kate with a bunch of her friends at Charlie’s Smokehouse in Crozet. A High School band was playing there, I don’t know their name. I tracked down the twins who play guitar and drums as Thomas and Andrew Fickley, but google didn’t come up with a band myspace page for them. The band’s music was good, covering some Dead, Counting Crows, and Wilco, and playing lots of their own Phish-style jam-band music. They sounded really good. The keyboard player could loosen up a little though. Everyone else in the band was moving and grooving to the music while the keyboardist stood in the back all stiff.

On to the food. I ordered the 1/2 rack of rib with a jerk rub. It came with two sides, so I chose the slaw and baked beans. The food was good. Not knock your socks off good, but if I were in the area for something, or wanted to hear a band there, I’d check out some other things on the menu.

Update: The band is named Help On The Way.